The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1887-04-12
FOOD FRAUDS.
The Shameful Use of Lime and Alum
in cheap Baking Powders.

The Shameful Use of Lime and Alum
in cheap Baking Powders.
Many food frauds. such as chicory
coffee or watered milk, although they
are swindlc in commercial sense,
arc often tolerated because they do not
particularly affect the health of the
consumer; but when an article like
baking powder, that enters largely in
to the food of every family, and is re-
lied upon for the preparation of al
most every meal, is so made as TO car
ry highly injurious, if not rankly pois-
onous, elements into the bread, the en-
tire community is endangered, and it
is the duty Of the press TO denounce
the practice in the most emphatic
terms.
Among the important discoveries
by the food analysis is that by Prof
Mott, the L. 5. Government Chemist,
of large mounts of lime and alum in
the cheap baking powders. These are,
one the most dangerous, and the other
the most useless adulterant yet found
il the ow-grade, inferior baking pow
ders. 1t Is startling fact that
of the many brands of baking DOW
ders so far Analysed, none of them,
with the single exception of the Royal
Baking Powder, was found free from
both lime and alum. The chief serv'
ice of lime Is to add weight. 1t is true
that lime, when subject to heat, gives
off a certain amount of carbonic acid
gas. but a quick lime is left--a caustic
so powerful that II is used by tanners
to eat the hair from hides of animals,
and in disscciing rooms to more
quickly rot the flesh from the bones
OF dead subjects A small quantity of
dry lime upon the tongue, or in the
eve, produces painful effects; how
much more serious must these effects
be on the delicate membranes of the
stomach, intestincs and kidneys, more
particularly of infants and children,
and especially when the lime is taken
into the system day after day, and
with almost every meal. This is said
by physicians to be one of the causes
of Indigestion, dyspepsia, and those
painful diseases of the kidneys now so
prevalent. Instances of the most Sc
rious affections of the latter organ
from drinking lime water found in
some sections are noted in every med
ical journal.
Adulteration with lime is quite as
much to be dreaded as with alum,
which has heretofore received the most
emphatic condemnation from every
food analyst, physician and chemist,
for the reason that, while alum is
probably partially dissolved and pass
ed off in gas by the heat in baking, il
is impossible to destroy or change the
nature of the lime iii any degree, so
that the entire amount in the baking
powder passes, with all its injurious
properties, into the stomach. When
we state that the chemists have found
twelve per cent or one-eighth of the
entire weight of some samples of bak-
ing powder analysed, to be lime, the
wickedness of the adulteratlon will be
apparent.
Pure baking powders are one of the
chief aids TO the cook in preparing
perfect and wholesome food. While
those are TO be obtained of well es-
tablished reputation, like the Royal, Of
whose purity there has never been a
question, it is proper TO avoid all 9th
ers.
The next musicale will be held at the
residence of w. c. Connor on Ervay
street, April 2lst.